If you texted a friend overseas or read an article from an international paper online, there is a good chance that you used undersea fiber optic cables. In addition, these cables support trillions on daily financial transactions and add hundreds of billions of dollars to our economy every year. Stretching across all oceans, people around the world rely heavily on these cables in their day-to-day lives.
Thankfully, the United States holds a major competitive advantage in the development and deployment of this vital telecommunications technology. However, China wants to change that.
Over the past few years, communist China has installed undersea cables in all continents except for Antarctica. In fact, they are still laying more cables that leads into their shores. Protecting our digital infrastructure from adversaries like China is a crucial component of our national security.
That is why I introduced the Undersea Cable Control Act, which would require the Biden Administration to develop a strategy to limit foreign adversaries like China from accessing goods and technologies capable of supporting undersea cables and establishing agreements with allies and partners to do the same.
Look what they’ve done with balloons. Look what they’ve done with social media. Why on earth would we want China to control one of the most powerful communications tools on the planet? This is the exact same Chinese Communist Party that wants to topple America and put communism on top. We must protect this infrastructure and technology that Americans rely on every day.
I’m glad to see that this bill was approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and look forward to it passing the House and becoming law. And I’ll continue to fight to ensure that the U.S. stands up to China.
